Riparian Cottonwoods

In the early 1990s the Prairie Conservation Forum (then still formally the Prairie Conservation Coordinating Committee, PCCC), became involved in a project to develop a conservation and management strategy for riparian poplars in southern Alberta. The project was funded by Prairie for Tomorrow, a joint three-year funding program which, like the first Prairie Conservation Action Plan, was a product of World Wildlife Fund Canada's 'Wild West' program. It was formally a project undertaken by World Wildlife Fund Canada and Alberta Forestry, Lands and Wildlife (Fish and Wildlife Division). The advisory group overseeing the project was comprised predominantly of PCCC members and the entire PCCC membership reviewed and provided input to the project.

The project was undertaken by a Working Group comprising Cheryl Bradley, Janice Eisenhauer, Francis Reintjes and Susie Washington from Western Environmental and Social Trends and John Mahoney from the University of Lethbridge. It was undertaken in two parts -- production of a biology and strategy report and development of a conservation and management strategy. The strategy was developed based on:

the information on biology, status and current management;

the issues and management options identified by a broad range of stakeholders through interviews; and

a PCCC-sponsored Strategy Workshop held in January 1992, which got input from organizations and individuals representing a wide cross-section of interests.

Publication occurred after the Klein government reorganized provincial ministries and the strategy was presented to Albertans by the Minister of Alberta Environmental Protection, who assumed responsibility for forests, parks and wildlife.

Copies of the two documents and their accompanying maps can be seen here: